Social Sharing Keeps Me In New Music

We are now a few weeks into the great Facebook/Spotify experiment. When I first heard about the open graph idea from Facebook, I cringed. The world does not need to know when I listen to washed up 80s pop music and watch romantic comedies. Such media cocktails are best consumed alone, in the privacy of your home, in a locked bedroom, under the covers with the lights out.

There is a lot of music out there not made for consumption within visibility of my 600 closest friends on Facebook. There are ways around this dillema, however. Spotify now has a private listening feature, legitimizing their presence independent of Facebook. Now, they need to free the service up so that you can sign up without the Facebook account. The social aspect is nice, but it should not completely define this program.

The privacy feature makes it a lot easier for people to take advantage of their wide search feature. It makes them more likely to sample an album they may be 50-50 on. This will only increase the usability of Spotify. Now you can enjoy the music of the Village People as well as Led Zeppelin.

There’s also a powerful search feature that allows you access to just about anything you want. This can be reason enough to stay holed up in your house for long periods of time doing nothing more than listening to music. There’s no reason to ever buy an album without listening to it first.

If you can’t get enough of an album you don’t want to share, you can also listen to it on iTunes, or whatever music software you had on your computer before social sharing. This is another easy way to dodge the watchful eye of the Facebook posse.

I have to say I already made a few additions to my music collection thanks completely to this new way to share music. They were albums I noticed on friends’ playlists that I had to have for myself. I generally had a pretty good idea of the friends that I share a similar music taste with. That gives me a good idea of whose Spotify activity to monitor.

Spotify means a better soundtrack for being plugged in at the computer, and that’s a good thing. Facebook’s open graph idea will bring you ideas you may not have considered for any media consumption. In the end, this is a good thing. As long as there are methods available for taking evasive action, enjoy finding what your friends want you to see. Have you discovered any new music this way? If not, why not?

What Is Your Klout?

Have you hooked up your social media accounts with the new Klout.com? This site measures online influence through Twitter, Facebook and a handful of other social media accounts.

Businesses love something measurable. Klout provides a way to rank your social media influence through conversations, and interactions that you should be having with potential customers.

The site formulates a score based on the size of your network and the level of interaction that you have with friends and followers. Don’t get too caught up in the size of the network aspect of the score, however.

If you have a huge network and never do anything to engage other followers, a high score won’t necessarily equate to social media being good for your business. What good are thousands of Twitter followers if you don’t talk with a single one?

Actively engaging people will deliver better results. One hundred tight-knit, engaged followers will do more for your business than 100,000 who don’t care what you tweet.

If you integrate your accounts and immediately have a high Klout score, that is excellent news. If you integrate accounts, and discover your score is not where you would want it to be, then you need to keep treating social media the right way—by engaging friends and followers.

Do not simply use your Facebook and Twitter accounts as press release platforms. Find people having other important conversations, and talk with them. Maybe the subject is not immediately related to your business or your field, but that will show people that you are human as well.

Guy Kawasaki writes about how important it is for your network to know about your passion, in his book Enchantment. It puts a face on your business, and in this era of one-on-one micro communications, people want to do business with other people.

The truth is that social media may not produce immediate results. You may not gain a client the next day because your Twitter connection also likes NFL football. Look at his network however, and notice that it’s large. Trust that he knows what you do. Interact, and share interests, and it may just be you that they remember six months down the road when they end up needing what you happen to provide.

It is not always the quick and easy road, but cultivating these types of relationships is what social media is all about. These networks mean that businesses now have access to a 24/7 networking event. Be human first, and your Klout score will follow.

Thoughts on Facebook Timeline

In a few weeks, we will see all the clever cartoons and graphics complaining about Facebook changes yet again. We all know the graphics—the ones begging the service we’ve all grown to know and love (for free) not to change its design and most popular features. Because we fear change and it’s inconvenient.

A few days ago, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the new changes headed our way with Timeline. It’s a photo-heavy page that will replace personal profiles. It’s a drastically different look for Facebook.

The layout really is beautiful and has a lot of potential. There’s a cover picture that takes up the whole top of the page, with your profile pic in the left corner.

I’d encourage everyone to build their Timeline when they get a chance. It’s not public yet, but all you have to do is activate the Facebook developer app, and they’ll invite you to use Timeline. You don’t have to build anything. For specific directions, you can Google “Activate Timeline” and get plenty of how-to’s.

Building the timeline is pretty self explanatory and by the time that it is made completely public, the kinks should be worked out. The only downside to the user is the incredible amount of scrolling that’s involved. These pages by design go on forever.

What does a bright and shiny new interface for Facebook mean for businesses and brands? These photo-centric profiles will certainly have their impact.

Facebook has not yet said what will happen with pages. With the graphically enhanced look of Timeline, it will be increasingly important for businesses to produce engaging content, to compete for user’s attention.

In addition to Timeline, businesses will have to compete with the new open graph features. All media consumption through Spotify, Netflix, and other apps will be visible. Not only that, but people will be able to watch and listen to the same thing as their friends, simply by clicking it.

With more media intake available directly through Facebook, brands will need to work harder to be seen. Video and pictures will be even more crucial.

This is a big deal for Facebook. This is possibly the biggest change in the company’s short history. The privacy debate will surely be rekindled, with the prominent placement of personal information. Once people get used to the new look, I think they’ll be pretty happy. Just learn to like scrolling again.

Go Forth and Google

After a LONG invite only period, Google Plus is finally open to everyone. If you do not have an account yet, you should probably set one up.

The biggest question I hear with Google Plus is what does it offer me that Facebook doesn’t? Right now, Google Plus does more to tie in your entire computing experience.

The network is becoming integrated with the rest of the Google platform. Gmail, reader, calendar and more are all easily available from the site.

Google Plus offers a feature called circles, that allows you to segment the groups you share with. Facebook is still a little bloated and convoluted when it comes to this issue.

There will soon be a stronger presence of business pages. Google Plus also recently announced the integration of Google Docs into the mobile version, giving people an easier way to pass documents back and forth.

All the announcements come in the days before Facebook’s F8 conference later this week, where they are expected to unroll major changes as well. The war between the giants is on.

Enjoy the benefits!

Are You Looking to Market a New Business?

Are you looking at starting a business? Jobs are scarce in this economy, so you’re not alone. Put some good thought into it. Consider where you are going to find your customers. You need to piece together a full out marketing plan.

What is your business goal? What field do you want to be an expert in? Do you want to sell locally, or be a regional or national resource for people to buy your product? How do you get from a nobody to a success?

Once you have these answers, setting up a plan to get there is the next step.

A web site is big. So is setting up Facebook and Twitter accounts. It’s up to you to go beyond that, however. Do a Google search to see if there are any social media platforms specific to your industry. You may be surprised.

You’ll also want to think about how to establish yourself as an authority in your field. A blog is a good way to do that. If you are more comfortable with your camera appearance than your writing skills, maybe a video blog is more your speed. Consider writing an Ebook, or producing a DVD to share your expertise.

Consider sending out press releases online, and to the various publications in your community or industry. These can stir up some publicity and press.

The biggest thing is to think like your customer. Is there a closely related interest they may have? For instance if you operate a fitness organization, they may be interested in nutrition. If you are marketing business to business, what other services do other small businesses need? This can help you find them.

Make sure there is a strong plan in place. Set realistic goals and stay organized and on task, and make it happen.

And Every Day After...

I wasn't going to do a Sept. 11 blog, but going through the memorials seems silly if we don't take anything from it.

Five random things to keep in mind as the world continues to turn. I’m as guilty as the next guy at forgetting, but they seemed important, so I thought I’d write them down and share:

The sacrifices that the first responders made are unbelievable. These are every day heroes. Period.

Remember our armed forces. These men and women show unbelievable bravery in the face of imminent danger. While we may not always agree with the politician that put them somewhere, these soldiers are busy protecting our way of life no matter what. For that they deserve our admiration and gratitude.

Keep the sense of community alive. This unspeakable tragedy made us want to change. It made us want to bring a little good to the world. This is a feeling that should be called on again and again.

For weeks, we were afraid to peel our eyes away from the television news. Something else might happen. The 24 hour cable news channels thrive now because of it. We still owe it to ourselves to pay attention. Stay up with current events.

Live every day like it may be your last. If you need to get somewhere across the country, fly. Travel hard. Go to the major sporting event no matter the threat level. Shop. Add to the economy. Keep our way of life.

Is Your Web Site Findable?

You wouldn’t buy your dream house if you couldn’t afford to furnish it. So why do so many businesses spare no expense with design on a site that is not built to be search engine friendly?

It might be your dream site. It might be the most beautiful spot on the wide, expansive web. It doesn’t matter one bit if no one can find it. Your web site should be part of your sales force. It should generate leads. It should be something with high level visibility.

I see it happen all the time. A nice design, and no meta tags. Maybe these businesses hired a designer with no SEO experience. Maybe they built the site themselves. Whatever the case, the meta tags at the top of the web site are what the search engine uses to asses search value to your web site. If there’s nothing there, it will have a drastic effect on your web site.

Sure there’s other search engine optimization measures that can be taken outside the code, but your site should be built strong on its own merit before you turn to these other measures.

For all you business owners out there, it’s real easy to tell where your web site stands with the search engines. If you hit the “view code” option on your browser, the gobbly-gook html will appear. If you see a line with